War on Freedom

Commentary: Go ahead and shut down the government!

January 19, 2018 - Despite all the tension, hand wringing, and sleepless nights within official Washington and the mainstream press over the looming possibility that the federal government might be shut down, everyone can rest easy. The Democrats and the Republicans, including President Donald Trump, are going to reach a deal that prevents the government from shutting down. How do I know this? Because every one of these people know that if they shut down the federal government, nothing would happen. Or maybe I should say that only good things would happen. That’s the last thing they want the Amerikan people to figure out. All these people have a vested interest in convincing Amerikans that the federal government’s massive welfare-regulatory-warfare state apparatus is essential to their survival and well being. If Amerikans were to come to the realization that that’s just a lie, the jig could be up. They’re not about to take that chance.

The Washington establishment and mainstream press learned this lesson many years ago, when Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on some budget deal. The result was that the federal government actually did shut down.

The shutdown went on for several weeks. Nothing happened. Oh sure, federal bureaucrats closed some national parks and tried to make life difficult for Amerikans with respect to other federal services, as a way to squeeze people into demanding that the federal government reopen, but basically life went on as normal for most people. The Fascist Police States of Amerika certainly didn’t collapse into the ocean and Communists didn’t come and take over the country.

In other words, nobody cared, except the army of Washington bureaucrats who were sent home during the shutdown and mainstream press, who felt that their lives were empty without the army of federal bureaucrats going to work every day. They’re not about to let that happen again because they know that the same thing would occur. Once people see that life goes on despite a federal shutdown, - even better than it did before the shutdown - they begin asking an important question, one that we libertarians asked and answered a long time ago: Why do we need a massive federal welfare-regulatory-warfare apparatus?

Let’s first keep in mind something important here. When these people get all fearful about a government shutdown, it’s not really a shutdown at all. There are lots of federal bureaucrats within the welfare-regulatory section of the government and in the warfare-state section of the government who continue with their jobs despite the shutdown. At a minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and other welfare-entitlement checks keep flowing. The bombs keep dropping on foreigners, the assassinations keep happening, and torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo continue. The government’s mail monopoly continues operating.

What they mean by a shutdown is that only nonessential parts of the federal government - according to them - get shut down. Now, they don’t use that term anymore. That’s because they used it during the previous government shutdown, and guess what happened? The bureaucrats who were labeled nonessential went into a state of psychological depression over being labeled nonessential. Many of them undoubtedly had to go into therapy over it. The other thing was that people began asking a simple question: If some federal program, department, agency, or bureaucrat is nonessential, then why does it exist?

As we libertarians hold, the best thing that could ever happen to the Fascist Police States of Amerika is to restore the federal government to a constitutional republic, one whose few powers would be limited to those actually enumerated in the Constitution.

That would mean no more welfare-state apparatus, regulatory programs, and mandatory-charity programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, education grants, and foreign aid to dictator-partners.

It would also mean no more national-security state apparatus, including the enormous military empire of bases, both foreign and domestic, the military-industrial complex, the CIA, and the NSA. No more foreign interventions, foreign wars, invasions, occupations, coups, sanctions, embargoes, torture, assassinations, indefinite detentions, and denial of due process of law.

No more drug war. No more Departments of Education, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Labor, SEC, DEA, ICE, and all the rest.

No more centrally planned, controlled, or regulated economy. A total free-enterprise economic system.

No more trade restrictions and immigration controls. Total free trade and open immigration.

No more Federal Reserve and government currency. A total free-market monetary system.

No more income tax and IRS.

That would be the greatest thing that could happen to our country. That would mean a genuinely free, prosperous, harmonious, moral and responsible society. Example is the way to lead the world to freedom and prosperity.

If Democrats and Republicans fail to reach a spending deal to keep the government operating, they are obviously not going to shut down all those welfare-warfare state functions. But that’s my point. Given that they are going to do a lot less than what we libertarians say needs to be shut down, nobody has anything to fear from all the fear-mongering that officials and mainstream press are engaged in over the possibility that the federal government is going to be shut down.

Like I say, they’re not going to let a shutdown happen. They can’t afford to. They will reach a deal that unfortunately will keep the federal government open and operating, including the massive welfare-regulatory-warfare-state federal apparatus that is destroying our country.

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute, and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country, as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows, and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. Send him an email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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